Friday, April 17, 2009

Charles Liggett and Paul Sherwin were both attracted to television from infancy. On one of these occasions watching the idiot box, Charlie gave a piece of his mind to Paul for distracting him from the commentary ahead. It is now believed that Charlie changed his passport name to 'Phil Liggett' so that Paul wouldn't recognize him as his childhood attacker, that left him challenged with just nine fingers.

It is no folklore that Freddy was born fast. He displayed his ability for taking risks, and sensing danger at an early age. His parents decided to refer him to the United States Cycling Federation to further develop his talents and put some more sense into it.

From old video archives, here's Sir Hoy some three decades ago, quite unlike the macho British Olympian that he is today. One theory put forward by biology experts suggests it wasn't the mimics of his father that cracked him up, but infact the rapid development of his piston like leg muscles that tickled him every now and then.

Rebellin consistently delivered in races, but he was a quiet man, never reveling in the excesses that his contemporaries plunged into. However, our man who captured this video of him back in the days just shows the amount of change that hard, unforgiving cycling can bring upon someone. The sheer charisma this man had back then, you know.....errr....

Hammond had some prodigious childhood abilities, one among which was the power to foretell the future. Hammond's family said that a 12 month old 'Roggie' would literally "simulate" how fast he would go at the World Championships in Athens in 2004. It is now held that he needed a little more firepower in his predictions to have landed a podium spot.

Ivan, it seems, was a small, chubby chap. He was constantly bullied by his cousins and members of his extended family into doing things they would never do....but which would nevertheless be awesome fun to watch. Note : Video has been removed but it can be watched on Youtube here.

Sastre was a noisy brat, compared to the composed man that he is now. All too often, he would resort to a corner of his baby's room, in the remoteness akin to that of a lone climber breaking away on the Alpe d'Huez. Then, he would start one of his Spanish canciones that made absolutely no sense and sounded more like an adult animal in labor. Researchers around the world are now trying to decode what he tried to say.

Even drug dealers have an innocent, adorable childhood. Frank was always the temperamental one, but Andy was on his back at all times, chilling out in his brother's shadow and requiring little maintenance at all.

We found a disturbingly funny set of videos in the pile of junk. These guys would later be turning nuts and bolts for one of best teams in the world. Let's hope one of them decides not to drop a monkey wrench in the party.

Some say leaders are made. We say leaders are BORN. Certainly, handling the immense logistical challenges of the biggest sport event needs something like Leblanc's innate traits of the oratory, diplomacy, and corruption which went on to make him one of the best Managers of the Tour de France. This is by far our best find from the archives.